Feds respond to Danziger Bridge cops' request for new trial

The federal government shot back this week at claims by four former New Orleans police officers that they deserve a new trial because prosecutors hid evidence in the Danziger Bridge shootings case. In a court filing this week, federal prosecutors argued that videotaped news footage of the Danziger Bridge on the day of the shooting was not hidden from the defense team. Prosecutors also portrayed the footage as far from conclusive, and certainly not the smoking gun that defense attorneys thought it was.

View full sizeDanny Bourque, The Times-Picayune archiveThe Danziger Bridge shootings in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina left two men dead and four people wounded.

Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Anthony Villavaso and Robert Faulcon were convicted of firing weapons on the bridge and participating in a cover-up, among other charges. They were issued sentences last month ranging from 38 to 65 years in prison.

Lawyers for the officers filed a motion this month that claimed prosecutors only recently turned over key videotaped evidence, and that the government knowingly used witness testimony that the video proved was false.

The video, shot by a CBS News affiliate in Miami and obtained by the FBI in 2009, shows no bullet casings on the bridge walkway, according to the defense team. The footage was shot on the day of the shooting, some time before James Brissette's body was removed from the scene.

Thus, Bowen couldn't have kicked casings off the bridge weeks later in a cover-up attempt because they weren't there, according to Bowen's attorney, Robin Schulberg, a federal public defender.

Former officer Jeffrey Lehrmann, who cooperated with the government and pleaded guilty, testified at trial that Bowen kicked casings off the walkway before crime lab technicians could recover them.

Bowen's attorney filed the motion, which was later adopted by attorneys for Villavaso, Faulcon and Gisevius.

Federal prosecutor Barbara "Bobbi" Bernstein argued this week in a court filing that the evidence was not newly discovered, should not be considered exculpatory, and "does not even suggest, let alone prove, that the government offered false testimony."

Bernstein called it factually incorrect to assert that the videotape contradicted Lehrmann's testimony. She wrote that even though the government was not obligated to disclose it, prosecutors had in fact notified defense attorneys of it and passed on the source and content of the tape. The video could not have affected the outcome of the trial, she wrote.

Bernstein also took aim at the defense attorneys' interpretation of the footage. She wrote that the video shows at least two shotgun casings on the bridge, and claims that it's possible other casings were present but out of view. Ultimately, the footage does not prove that casings aren't there, she argued.

U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt has yet to rule on the motion for a new trial.